Plea to dog walkers after seal pup is washed up on Skegness nature reserve beach

Kev Wilson, warden at Gibraltar Point, said the two-day-old seal pup appeared on the beach during strong offshore winds and had been separated from its mum.

However, with more seal pups expected over the coming weeks, he raised concerns as many dog walkers were ignoring signs to keep pets on a lead.

"it is a timely reminder of how vulnerable our wildlife can be," said Kev.

"We are grateful to Natureland for taking the pup into care and we are grateful to all responsible dog walkers for respecting the important populations of birds and seals that rely on a clean and undisturbed environment."

Natureland says the pup is now in the sanctuary's hospital and is doing well.

""We have three others in there at the moment, all very small and they came in to us only days old," said Ella Yeadon.

"However, we are anticipating to be a lot busier over the next few weeks.

"All we can really say is that if you find a seal on the beach, please put dogs on a lead and stay a safe distance away from the seal.

"As we saw with Freddie Mercury, the seal that was attacked by a dog down south and had to be euthanised due to his injuries, it is so important that dogs are kept away from any seals on the beach and on a lead to prevent anything like that happening again."

To make a donation to the rescue work done by Skegness Natureland visit https://www.skegnessnatureland.co.uk/donate/